When the Darkness Comes
by VioletK
Summary: As Alexandra sheds the title of the on-and-off companion, the Doctor's hearts try to follow his mind with little success, while she tries to make sense of her nightmares and abilities. Both of them keep secrets from the other, keeping Martha on edge, none of them knowing that two mysterious figures watch their every move... (10/OC) Second of the Arie for the Daughter of Time.
1. It Never Rains, But It Pours

**A/N: Greeting, readers! Welcome to my new story, **_**When the Darkness Comes**_**, a sequel to **_**Whispers in the Dark **_**and the second story in my **_**Arie for the Daughter of Time**_** series! It is not necessary to read the first story to understand what will be going on, but you can go ahead and do that before reading this one, as it will clear up confusion later on. **

**Before we begin, I would like to apologize to the old readers for the delay in uploading, as I was patiently waiting for my beta to finish up the second part of the episode so that I could upload them together, and now that it is done (a big kiss to InTheTARDISJustAsItShouldBe!) the sequel is finally yours! To be fair, I did decide to split the big chapters up in smaller ones to see how that goes at the last moment, but you're getting a chapter nonetheless!**

**Small introduction, for those who forgot or missed it: this is a rewrite of series 3 of **_**Doctor Who**_**, featuring my OC, the Time Lady Alexandra (or Valyria, as her actual Gallifreyan name is), a girl that was born in the midst of the Time War to Romanadvoratrelundar and raised by the Sisterhood of Karn. Currently on her second body (for your convenience and mine, the actress portraying her is Anna Popplewell), she thought she was 21 years old last time we saw her, though the Doctor found out she was actually 356, a fact he didn't inform her off. She also possesses a yet unexplored power since she was born, a fact she didn't inform the Doctor of. She is not yet part of the TARDIS crew, but she will gradually become one as this story goes on as she builds her relationship with the Time Lord from scratch, and meets Martha Jones! **

**Continuing my naming the stories after songs (though they are **_**not**_** songfics), I borrowed the title of Colbie Caillat's song, as the title on its own really suits the feel of this story and where I want to go with it and the lyrics mirror what will be going on with the Doctor and Alexandra during this instalment. So on you go, and don't forget to leave a review! **

The grey clouds in the sky outside the Royal Hope Hospital complemented Mr. B. Stoker's unchanging mood as he led his medical students inside another ward, as their routine was every morning. Every day he would take them on a tour around the hospital to check on. After visiting an older woman, he then led them to a new patient, a man in pyjamas, with brown hair that stood almost on end.

''Now then, Mr. Smith, a very good morning to you,'' he greeted the patient, earning a wide smile. ''How are you today?''

''Aw, not so bad,'' he replied. ''Still, a bit, you know, blah.''

Mr. Stoker addressed his students. ''John Smith, admitted yesterday with severe abdominal pains. Jones,'' he turned to a young black woman with straight black hair, ''why don't you see what you can find? Amaze me.''

The woman, Martha Jones, stepped up, placing a stethoscope around her neck. ''That wasn't very clever,'' she told the patient, ''running around outside, was it?''

Mr. Smith looked at her in confusion. ''Sorry?''

''On Chancellor Street this morning,'' Martha explained. ''You came up to me and took your tie off.''

''Really? What did I do that for?''

''I don't know, you just did,'' she shrugged.

The man shook his head. ''Not me. I was here, in bed. Ask the nurses.''

It was Martha's turn to be confused. ''Well, that's weird, cause it looked like you. Have you got a brother?''

He shook his head yet again. ''No, not any more. Just me.''

''As time passes and I grow ever more infirm and weary, Miss Jones,'' Mr. Stoker broke their conversation irritably.

Martha looked up at him. ''Sorry. Right.'' She placed the tip of the stethoscope on the left side of his chest to listen to his heartbeat, the man watching her intently. She could hear a strong heartbeat, but something seemed to echo that sound. Turning her eyes to the man, she saw him smirking at her. Moving the stethoscope to the right, she found another heartbeat, equally as strong as the first one. Mr. Smith simply winked at her.

Mr. Stoker, watching the scene, sighed. ''I weep for future generations. Are you having trouble locating the heart, Miss Jones?''

Martha raised herself up, removing the stethoscope from her ears. ''Um… I don't know,'' she laughed, dismissing the thought. ''Stomach cramps?''

''That is a symptom, not a diagnosis. And you rather failed basic techniques by not consulting first with the patient's chart.'' Their overseer picked a chart up from the end of Mr. Smith's bed, but dropped it as soon as a small electric shock struck his hand.

''That happened to me this morning,'' said Martha.

''I had the same thing on the door handle,'' a male student, Morgenstern, added.

''And me,'' Swales, a friend of Martha's among the group, pointed out, ''in the lift.''

''That's only to be expected,'' Mr. Stoker explained. ''There's a thunderstorm moving in and lightning is a form of static electricity, as was first proven by – anyone?'' he addressed his audience.

''Benjamin Franklin,'' he was surprised to hear Mr. Smith answer.

''Correct!''

''My mate Ben; that was a day and a half,'' he started rambling, ''I got rope burns off that kite, and then I got soaked…''

''Quite-''

''... and then I got electrocuted!'' he finished, looking around the group with a smile.

''Moving on.'' Mr. Stoker took a male nurse aside. ''I think perhaps a visit from psychiatric,'' he told him, and then addressed his students again, ''and next we have…''

John Smith watched them go with a wide smile, earning one back from Martha Jones as she left with the rest of the small group.

~\8/~

''Here we are, then,'' Mr. Stoker said, leading them to a bed in another ward. Lying on it was a woman in her early twenties with straight chestnut hair and icy blue eyes, her cheeks and nose adorned with freckles, wearing a white gown and reading a magazine. Her left hand was being fed by an IV bag. ''An early admittance, Andrea Harkness came in the early hours of the morning with a severe headache and dizziness. How, are you, miss Harkness?''

She put her magazine down on her lap. ''Tiny bit better, actually. Still got a headache, though, and I'm a tiny bit nauseous.''

He smiled at her and turned to the group. ''Any suggestions? Jones?'' he addressed the woman. ''Maybe something to make up for your previous errors?''

Martha nodded. ''Dizziness and nausea could be symptoms of pregnancy,'' she suggested, and Miss Harkness' mouth dropped in the shape of an O.

''I can assure you I'm not pregnant,'' she said indignantly.

Mr. Stoker pursed his lips. ''Now, you're making the same mistake again. Miss Harkness, what have you been doing for the past days? Taken good care of yourself?''

She cocked her head to the side. ''No, actually. I barely had time to eat or drink this week, been very busy. You think this has something to do with it?''

''Just simple dehydration, that's all,'' he assured her. ''And you ate a whole meal in one go right after waking up, can't blame you for feeling nauseous. See?'' he said to the group. ''Sometimes the solution is fairly simple.''

''But sometimes it's not.'' Everyone's heads turned in Miss Harkness' direction. ''It might be even more complicated than you thought.'' Her tone was so ominous that Martha shivered.

Mr. Stoker cleared his throat. ''Alright, time to move on again…'' He led the group outside once more, away from her piercing blue eyes that followed them till they were gone.

~\8/~

Alexandra was woken up two hours later by loud thunder.

She blearily opened her eyes and stared out of the window to see rain pouring heavily outside. Most of the inhabitants of the ward were awake, unlike her, who had dozed off right after the medical students had left. Faking various conditions had become quite an expertise of hers the past years, seeing that she wasn't remotely human. It had been a surprise when she had found out she could manipulate her own internal organs to create various medical conditions (an ability that had even pushed her towards her chosen profession), and when she saw the plasma coils outside the hospital, she had seized the opportunity to use said ability to get in. And good thing she did.

Because that didn't sound like normal thunder.

Her assumptions were further affirmed when the rain started going up.

She immediately tugged at the tape securing the needle in her arm to get a closer look, but it wouldn't come off, no matter how hard she scratched at it. ''Come off, come off…'' she mumbled under her breath. Just as she found a free corner of tape to pull, a bright light filled the room and a strong quake knocked everyone on the floor, including her. The moment she fell, a stinging pain travelled through her arm as the needle was violently ripped out of it, but she didn't have time to address the problem; she was far too busy cowering in the middle of the floor, covering her head with her hands till the quake stopped.

Once it did, Alexandra slowly raised her head up to look around. Curtains were ripped off their rings, tables had travelled across the room, medical equipment had scattered across the floor. A small trail of blood ran down her arm.

All people currently in the room gathered around the window to look outside at the sudden change from day to night, and she joined them. ''Excuse me, sorry,'' she mumbled, sliding next to a young woman to look properly and her eyes widened.

The hospital was standing on the surface of the moon, the Earth visible in the distance.

''Oh, my world," she breathed.

Meanwhile, the room had erupted into chaos. People were screaming and running around like the Apocalypse had come. The medical staff tried to contain the situation, but to no avail; the patients wouldn't listen.

Alexandra went back to her bed and took her clothes from a cupboard next to it. She had to do something, and if the tugging at the back of her mind was anything to go by, she knew exactly who to look for to help.

~\8/~

Martha rushed inside one of the wards, followed by a sobbing Swales. ''All right, everyone back to bed,'' she called as she strode towards the window. ''We've got an emergency but we'll sort it out. Don't worry!''

The Doctor, who had admitted himself as John Smith, watched her intently before shutting his bed curtain.

The young woman looked outside, having a hard time believing they were actually where they were. But there it was: the surface of the moon, and the Earth suspended in the horizon. ''It's real! It's really real! Hold on.'' She reached for the window latch.

''Don't!'' Swales caught her hand to stop her. ''We'll lose all the air!''

''But they're not exactly air tight,'' Martha reasoned. ''If the air was going to get sucked out, it would have happened straightaway, but it didn't. So how come?''

The curtain was pulled aside and the Doctor, in a tight blue suit, emerged. ''Very good point! Brilliant, in fact. What was your name?'' he asked.

''Martha.''

''And it was Jones, wasn't it?'' She nodded. ''Well then, Martha Jones, the question is, how are we still breathing?'' He came to the window as well, looking outside.

''We can't be!'' Swales sobbed.

''Obviously we are, so don't waste my time,'' he dismissed her.

''And here I thought that you would be less rude!'' a voice called behind them.

The Doctor whirled around at the familiar (though now seemingly a bit deeper) voice and could only stare as none other than Alexandra strode into the room, looking very different from what he remembered. Last time he had seen her, she was walking towards a UNIT truck, about to be taken away per her request. And back then it had been his fault that she had left, not being able to cope with the news of her parentage weighing down on him. According to her, she had done them both a favour by leaving the TARDIS, and even now, a few months after the incident for him (though he doubted it had been that short a time for her) he still wasn't sure if he had decided what she was to him.

It wasn't her sudden entrance that had startled him the most; it was her aging. The last time he had seen her she had had the appearance of a 14-year-old girl, and now she had matured to a young and beautiful woman, nothing like the teenager he had met a few months ago from his perspective. And it wasn't just that; this Alexandra had a very strong mental presence in his mind, as if her own mind was a beacon signalling that she was, indeed, standing in front of him, that she wasn't a person to be ignored. For a moment, he had to consider the repercussions of such a presence and what it would mean to similarly telepathic species like themselves.

Her style had matured, as well: she was wearing a black sleeveless dress with a lace neckline and a train in a similar fashion to the skirts she preferred to wear when she was younger, though that was the only similarity she had with her human self in sense of style. She wore it along with a pair of black military boots, obviously preferring them over coloured sneakers now, a leather jacket in one hand; her cloak wouldn't have spared her a visit to a psych ward, he guessed. Her hair fell over her right shoulder, the left side held up by the barrette she had been wearing when she had left the TARDIS. A heavy fob watch, THE fob watch, in fact, was still hanging around her neck, while a brown leather bracer was tied around her left wrist.

''Whoa, what year is this?'' he only managed to get out, his thoughts having difficulty arranging themselves into spoken words.

She was rummaging through a cupboard by the door. ''The same as before'', she said. ''Don't worry; it was me who travelled. Miss Jones?'' she called. ''Where do you keep sticker bandages?''

Martha blinked. ''The cupboard next to you.''

Alexandra nodded and opened it, pulling out what she was looking for. As she applied it over the small hole the IV tube had left behind, she kept coming towards them. ''Right after you left, I reverse engineered a vortex manipulator and did some travelling of my own; living up to the title, you know? Took me very long, though; should have come back earlier. Come here!'' She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a tight hug, and he hugged her back with a laugh, earning a confused glance from Martha.

Once he let her go, he looked at her arm. ''What's wrong with your hand?''

''Nothing; we're on the moon!'' Alexandra cheered and he smiled.

''I know! And we're breathing!''

''I love it when that happens!'' She giggled slightly at her own excitement and then she let go to stare outside the window. ''How do you reckon we should proceed?''

As much as the shock was getting to him, he couldn't let it stall him, so the Doctor turned to Martha. ''Martha, what have we got? Is there a balcony on this floor, or a veranda, or...?''

After a short moment of breaking away the confusion, she replied. ''By the patients' lounge, yeah.''

''Fancy going out for a moon walk, Martha Jones?'' Alexandra asked her.

''Okay,'' she said in a heartbeat.

''We might die,'' the Doctor warned her.

''We might not,'' she countered.

Both aliens smiled. ''Good, c'mon,'' the Doctor said, then glanced at Swales. ''Not her, she'd hold us up.'' The intern sobbed once as they ran out of the room, Martha behind Alexandra.

''I love the way you think, Martha Jones,'' she called over her shoulder at the medical student as she tied her jacket around her waist, and Martha smiled at the comment.

Martha led the two of them down the hallway and in front of the glass doors leading outside. The Time Lords took hold of the door handles and, after a subtle nod from her, opened it and stepped outside.

Martha took in a sharp breath. ''We've got air! How does that work?''

''Just be glad it does'', the Doctor commented as they stepped closer to the edge of it. Alexandra kept back a bit, staring up at the Earth looming in the horizon.

''I've got a party tonight,'' Martha mumbled and Alexandra turned her eyes on her. ''It's my brother's twenty-first. My mother's going to be really... really…'' Her voice broke at the end, as if she was about to cry.

''You okay?'' she asked her, taking a step closer to her.

''Yeah.''

''Sure?'' the Doctor asked in return.

''Yeah!''

''Want to go back in?''

Martha shook her head. ''No way! I mean, we could die any minute, but all the same - it's beautiful.''

''You think?'' he stared up at the Earth.

''How many people want to go to the moon?'' she wondered. ''And here we are!''

''Standing in the earthlight,'' Alexandra mumbled as she came to stand next to her, resting her elbows on the balcony the same moment the Doctor did.

After a moment of silence, Martha addressed the Doctor. ''What do you think happened?''

''What do you think?'' he asked her back. The woman had shown promise so far. She was intelligent and able to keep her calm in situations as stressful as the one they were in right now. Not that he was looking for companions, of course not. That position was reserved for Alexandra, if she would have it. But Martha Jones was a very interesting human being.

''Extraterrestrial,'' she replied firmly. ''It's got to be. I don't know, a few years ago that would have sounded mad, but these days? That spaceship flying into Big Ben, Christmas, those Cybermen things...'' Her eyes drifted out into the horizon. ''I had a cousin. Adeola. She worked at Canary Wharf. She never came home.''

Alexandra looked at the Doctor as she placed a hand over Martha's in an attempt to offer her some comfort.

''I'm sorry,'' he told her.

''Yeah.''

''I was there,'' he mumbled. ''In the battle…'' His eyes were filled with sorrow and he got lost in his own thoughts, and Alexandra immediately knew why he was like that. She remembered when he had told her about Rose, the woman she had taken a glimpse of in his mind, the one who got lost in a parallel universe during the battle of Canary Wharf. It was still raw for him, a wound wide open, because she knew the man loved Rose very much, she had figured that much out, even though she didn't know how much, and it hurt to even bring her in his mind, let alone remember the day she was ripped from his grasp.

And she wanted to do something, she really did, but what could she do? What did she know about love? She barely remembered her own mother! She was too young – by her species' standards – to understand what he needed, and she hadn't even experienced the feeling for herself to begin with (her sisters weren't a very expressive lot when it came to emotions). And, of course, she didn't want to force her way into the Doctor's life and become his new project to take his mind off Rose, or replace the children he had lost. That's why she had stopped him from helping her when she was apprehended by UNIT. She wanted to figure out her new life by herself.

Though she couldn't lie to herself; there was the... other matter that held her back from accepting his offer, as well... A matter more personal than the rest...

''I promise you, Mr. Smith,'' Martha broke her reverie, ''Miss Harkness, we will find a way out. If we can travel to the moon, then we can travel back. There's got to be a way.''

Meanwhile, the Doctor was examining the space around the balcony. ''It's not Smith, that's not my real name,'' he told her. Alexandra, guessing what he was thinking, looked over the balcony as well. ''And hers is not Harkness – where did you pick up Harkness, anyway?''

''Long story, wouldn't know where to start'', Alexandra replied, focusing on examining the base of the hospital. ''Won't keep it, though.''

''Who are you, then?'' Martha asked, looking at the pair's odd actions.

''My name's Alexandra.''

''And I'm the Doctor.''

''Me too, if I can pass my exams,'' she laughed. ''What is it, then? Doctor Smith?''

''Just the Doctor,'' both Time Lords said, looking over the same side.

With every passing remark, she grew even more confused. ''How do you mean, just the Doctor?''

''Just... the Doctor,'' he looked at her.

''What, people call you 'the Doctor'? And don't you have a surname?'' she turned to Alexandra, as well.

''No, I don't,'' Alexandra picked up a pebble from the balcony and started tossing it in the air, ''and yeah, we do call him that.''

''Well, I'm not,'' Martha said. ''As far as I'm concerned, you've got to earn that title.''

''Well, I'd better make a start, then. Let's have a look.'' The Doctor took the pebble from Alexandra mid-air, earning an annoyed yelp, and threw it forward with force. ''There must be some sort of…'' The pebble hit an invisible wall, causing ripples in the air.

''…force field,'' Alexandra finished for him, ''to keep the air in.''

''If that's like a bubble sealing us in,'' Martha realized, ''that means this is the only air we've got.'' She looked to the pair, who were looking at the place where the pebble had hit the force field. ''What happens when it runs out?''

''How many people in this hospital?'' the Doctor asked.

She shrugged. ''I don't know, a thousand?''

''One thousand people,'' he mumbled, ''suffocated.''

Alexandra let out a shuddering breath. ''Oh, my world,'' she whispered.

''Why would anyone do that?!'' Martha asked them in alarm.

Suddenly a rumbling noise like an engine filled the night. ''Head's up! Ask them yourself.'' The Doctor looked up just as three huge black ships flew overhead and came to land in front of the hospital, outside the force field. Latches opened at their bottom and what seemed like platoons upon platoons of armour-clad aliens with huge black helmets emerged and started marching across the surface of the moon towards the hospital.

''Aliens,'' Martha breathed. ''That's aliens. Real, proper aliens!''

Alexandra chuckled. ''I take offence in that statement,'' she remarked quietly to the Doctor, almost hanging from the balcony to get a better look.

''Judoon,'' he identified the aliens, smirking just a little bit at her remark.


	2. Moon Walking

**A/N: (WARNING, Last Christmas spoilers ahead) OH MY GOD, I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! Clara is staying for series 9! You can't believe how excited I am by the news! My sister and I nearly cried at the old Clara scene and how she ended up, and the Santa Claus came and we nearly screamed and the Doctor went to find her and JESUS CHRIST THIS IS THE BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!**

**Sorry, got a bit carried away.**

**Anyway, since I'm so happy with this turn of events, you'll get the second chapter TODAY! So go ahead and read on, as a special holiday gift!**

**Also, I realized not all of us celebrate Christmas, so let me broaden this and wish everyone a happy holiday with the people you love and cherish! **

The trio had reached the first floor in no time, though they had to duck out of sight due to the open corridor overlooking the lobby they had found themselves in. The Doctor led them behind a few potted plants, the women on either side of him, to look at the commotion below. The Judoon, big walking rhinos dressed in all black, were shining a blue light on the people's faces, scanning for non-human DNA. If the scans showed that he or she was human, they marked the back of their hands with an X.

''Oh, look down there, you've got a little shop!'' the Doctor smiled. ''I like a little shop.''

''Never mind that!'' Martha exclaimed. ''What are Judoon?''

''Galactic police. Well, police for hire. More like interplanetary thugs.''

''And they brought us on the moon?''

''Neutral territory,'' Alexandra piped in before the Doctor could even open his mouth. ''According to galactic law, they've got no jurisdiction over the Earth, and they isolated us. The rain and lightning was an H2O scoop to bring us up here.''

''What's that about 'galactic law'?'' Martha asked, rolling her eyes. ''Where'd you get that from?'' The Doctor and Alexandra moved to the other side of the railing and Martha followed suit behind them, kneeling next to him and peeping over it. ''If they're police, are we under arrest? Are we trespassing on the moon or something?''

''No. But I like that,'' he praised, ''good thinking. No, it's more simple. They're making a catalogue, it means they're after something non-human, which is very bad news for us two,'' he pointed between himself and Alexandra.

She, just getting what he was implying, froze. ''Uh-oh.''

''Why?'' Martha wondered. The pair merely looked at her meaningfully. ''Oh, you're kidding me.'' The Doctor raised an eyebrow, while Alexandra gave her a crooked smile. ''Don't be ridiculous,'' Martha laughed, but when she saw their expressions didn't waver, she sobered up. ''Stop looking at me like that.''

''Come on, then,'' he beckoned her up, following Alexandra, who had turned in a crouch and had walked down the corridor behind them.

~\8/~

Alexandra was peering over the Doctor's shoulder as he worked on a computer in one of the hospital's labs, using the sonic on the screen to search the records. His face was all scrunched up in concentration and mild annoyance.

''So,'' he started, ''how long?''

She blinked. ''Huh?''

''How long has it been?''

Alexandra rested her elbows on the desk, deliberately keeping her gaze on the screen. She had hoped to avoid the question for a while longer, but of course, it was quiet, they were alone and he was the Doctor. ''Must be… 175 years?''

The Doctor stopped to look at her. ''You're... 196 years old?'' he mumbled in slight shock, catching himself just in time before he revealed the result of the actual addition he had done in his mind... which was 356+175. The fact that she had grown older wasn't what shocked him the most, though. It was the fact that she still didn't know how old she actually was, which meant that those memories hadn't come back yet. What could be so dramatic that her mind decided to bury 335 years of memories? And why didn't she realize that her previous incarnation had actually been 343 instead of 8?

Alexandra just shrugged at his revelation, not catching his train of thought. ''I told you, I got travelling. Like you so often do.''

''And what were you doing all this time on your own?''

That was the question she had been dreading the most. She clasped her hands on the desk nervously in a manner her human counterpart had also shared. ''I've been around for a while. Human colonies in the future, alien telepathic races for the... you know...'' She pointed subtly at her head. ''Had to get my mind in shape again and that I did.''

''Yeah, I noticed,'' he nodded in agreement. ''You've got a much stronger mental presence than before. Well done,'' he praised with a smile. The Time Lady dropped a curtsy in reply.

Even if practising her mental abilities had been a great part of her wanderings, the main reason she had started her travels for was research. She had found herself in famed universities, sacred archives and even the odd wise storyteller to gather information on her abilities, if there was any information to look for. Of course, she knew what the ideal place to look in was, but for now, at least, she had told herself that the TARDIS library was off limits.

The sisters had called the golden light ''the gift of time'' and she had often caught snippets of conversations between the oldest of the sisterhood when they called her ''the gifted one'' or ''the daughter of time''. She remembered that the glow was accompanied by time distortions more often than not back at home, something that was persistent even now, if not more aggressive. During her research, she had found little to no mentions of individuals or even Time Lords with the abilities she had. The only thing she had found were records of various versions of the legend of the Princess of Arcadia, and the further in time she got, the more distorted even that one became. She had resigned herself to the fact that only Gallifreyan records would hold any bit of information concerning time warping powers – or, as she preferred to call it, chronokinesis – and those were either destroyed along with her planet... or available somewhere in the TARDIS.

''Yep, travelling helps the soul. I might continue once we're done here, look up some things on my own.'' She felt obliged to add that last bit when she saw the Doctor's face momentarily light up, and it didn't feel refreshing to see his expression fall as soon as he had gotten his hopes up.

He looked at her for a few brief moments and then continued sonicing the computer. ''So I should expect more of this in the future?''

''Whose future?'' she raised an eyebrow and he gave her a small laugh, just as Martha came in the room.

''They've reached the third floor... What's that thing?'' she nodded towards the screwdriver.

''Sonic screwdriver,'' they both replied, not bothering to turn around and look at her. As soon as they said it, they turned their eyes on each other, smiling excitedly, before focusing on the computer again.

''Well, if you're not going to answer me properly-''

''No, really, it is,'' the Doctor rolled around his chair. ''It's a screwdriver, and it's sonic.'' He held it up. ''Look.''

''What else have you got?'' Martha asked, not quite buying what they were selling. ''Laser spanner?''

''I did, but it was stolen by Emily Pankhurst, cheeky woman.'' Suddenly he hit the screen with his hand. ''What's wrong with this computer?!''

''Don't assault the computer, it did nothing wrong!'' Alexandra exclaimed and stroked its top once. ''He didn't mean it.''

''The Judoon must have locked it down. Judoon platoon upon the moon.'' He rubbed his chin in thought. '''Cause I was just travelling past, I swear, I was just wandering, I wasn't looking for trouble – honestly, I wasn't–'' he rushed to add once he saw Alexandra's raised eyebrow, ''but I noticed these plasma coils around the hospital, and that lightning – that's the plasma coils – has been building up for two days now, so I checked in, I thought something was going on inside, it turns out the plasma coils were the Judoon up above… Why are you laughing?'' he asked Alexandra, who had started snickering next to him.

She just teased one lock on the top of his head. ''Nice hairstyle, you should keep it.''

He hadn't noticed that, during his unending speech, he had run his hand through his hair so many times that now he looked like some kind of mad bird.

''But what were they looking for?'' Martha asked.

''Something that looks human, but isn't.''

''Like you, apparently.''

''Like us. But not us. Not you, right?'' he rounded up on Alexandra.

She raised her hands in defence. ''You got me; I saw the plasma coils last night, thought it might be interesting to take a look at them up close, checked in early morning.'' She took the keyboard from him. ''Let me try and unlock it.''

The Doctor, however, kept a firm hand on it. ''You don't have as much experience as I do with computers.''

''I believe my years of experience are enough.''

''But I still have the advantage!''

''And I have the intuition of a woman!

''27 brains!''

''Woman, 30 brains, my turn, give me a chance!''

He stared at her for a few seconds before letting go of the keyboard. Before taking his place in the chair, Alexandra landed a small kiss on his cheek, one that left him a bit dazed.

''Haven't they got a photo?'' Martha asked slowly, having witnessed the odd interaction.

''Might be a shape-changer,'' he replied, watching the quick progress Alexandra was making with keen interest.

''Whatever it is, can't you just leave the Judoon to find it?''

''If they declare the hospital guilty of harbouring a fugitive, they'll sentence it to execution.''

''All of us?!'' Martha realized in shock.

''Oh yes. If we can find this thing first... Oh!'' he exclaimed just as all windows started disappearing from the screen, making Alexandra jump. ''Do you see, they're thick! Judoon are thick! They are completely thick! They wiped the records! Oh, that's clever,'' he ran a hand through his hair again, making it even more messed up than before.

''What are we looking for?'' the black woman asked, wanting to help out.

''I don't know. Say, any patient admitted in the past week with unusual symptoms. Maybe there's a back-up!'' He grabbed the screen and looked behind it, grabbing the sonic to boost the system again. The Time Lady did everything in her power not to laugh out loud at the sight of his hair.

''Just keep working, I'll go ask Mr. Stoker, he might know,'' Martha said before turning to exit the room, careful not to step on the items had had fallen on the floor during the quake.

~\8/~

''We don't need to go and get her, she'll come to us!'' Alexandra protested as she briskly walked behind the Doctor.

''Well, she doesn't have to bring along her overseer, then he'll have to tag along!'' the Doctor replied, or more like whined. ''I don't like people tagging along when I don't want them!''

''Yeah, for you, it's just the elite few,'' she joked when they came to the main corridor, seeing Martha running towards them. ''Hey, we restored the back-up!''

''I found her,'' she replied instead, making the Time Lady blink.

''You did what?'' the Doctor asked incredulously, just as a man dressed in leather from top to bottom and wearing a big black shiny helmet broke through the door Martha had come through and advanced towards them. His hand caught Alexandra's firmly. ''Run!'' he shouted to the girls and pulled her along down the corridor, Martha following close behind as the man gave chase.

They ran down the staircase of the hospital, followed closely by the leather clad man, though Martha was pretty sure they were trying to shake him off. When they reached the fourth floor, however, they had to come to a halt when they saw a group of Judoon marching up the stairs. The Doctor pushed them through the door to the wards before they could be seen. They kept running without knowing where they were going, though he had a very good idea where to lead him.

And that's why, when they reached the radiology room, he pushed the two girls inside and locked the door with his sonic right in the face of their pursuer.

He pushed them inside the controller's room while the man outside pounded at the door. ''When I say 'now', press the button,'' he said.

''But I don't know which one!'' Martha protested.

''Then find out!''

Alexandra sighed and studied the equipment before her, all a series of switches and buttons that could likely be the ones they were looking for. Oh, that's what not working in the 21st century did to a scientist!

She looked around, her eyes landing on a big black binder. ''Manual!'' she exclaimed, plucked it out off the bookshelf and opened it, skimming through the pages while thanking her Time Lord brain for being able to record small details easily. She looked at Martha and pointed at a big yellow button. _Obvious button is obvious_, she thought. ''That yellow one there!''

The medical student nodded and positioned herself in front of it, ready to do as instructed.

Looking through the glass, they just saw the Doctor place his screwdriver in the machinery and turn it towards the door, which was barely standing on its hinges. ''What are you doing?!'' Alexandra shouted at him.

''Something really clever!'' he shouted back, just as the man broke the door down and entered. ''NOW!''

Martha slammed her hand on the button and the room filled with blue light as the Doctor zapped the man with radiation, his own skeleton flashing in and out of view, while the man appeared to be completely solid. Once the radiation was off, the man tipped over and fell over like a plank, landing on his face. She looked at the Doctor in utter shock, while Alexandra just stared at him in amazement.

''What did you do?!'' the human asked.

He looked down at the body on the floor before him, slightly out of breath. ''Increased the radiation by five thousand percent. Killed him dead.''

''But isn't that gonna kill you?''

''Nah, it's only roentgen radiation,'' he replied. ''We used to play with roentgen bricks in the nursery. It's safe for you to come out, I've absorbed it all. All I need to do is expel it.'' The girls moved around the barrier and watched the Doctor intently as he rolled back his shoulders and bounced on the spot. ''If I concentrate… I can shake the radiation out of my body and into one spot.'' He lifted his left foot up. ''It's in my left shoe. Here we go, here we go, easy does it...'' He then proceeded, to Martha's confusion and Alexandra's utter amusement, to bounce backwards while kicking his foot forward. ''Out! Out! Ow, ow, ow. Ow, ow, ow, ah! Hah, hah, itches! Itches! Itches! Itches! Oh, ooh, hold on...'' He then grabbed his left sneaker and ripped it off his foot, throwing it in the dustbin next to him. ''Done.''

''Can I do that?'' Alexandra asked with a child-like smile on her face.

The Doctor smiled back. ''What, haven't you tried it yet?''

''I'm only 196 years old; there are plenty of things I haven't done yet!'' she replied indignantly and his smile dropped. So she really hadn't discovered she was quite older than that yet…

''Do I have to do it that way?''

At that, he had to pause. ''Probably not…'' he admitted.

''You two are completely mad,'' Martha observed, having witnessed the interaction.

''You're right,'' the Doctor mumbled, ''I look daft with one shoe.'' And he promptly removed his right sneaker as well, throwing it in the dustbin. He wiggled his bare toes while the Time Lady laughed hysterically behind him. ''Barefoot on the moon!''

Martha chose to ignore the last bit, instead focusing on the alien on the floor, crouching beside it. ''So what is that thing? And where's it from? The planet Zovirax?''

''It's just a Slab,'' the Doctor said, coming to crouch on its other side, Alexandra leaning over his shoulder with a small frown on her face. ''They're called 'Slabs'. Basic slave drones, see?'' He rubbed its arm, prompting Martha to do the same. ''Solid leather, all the way through. Someone has got one hell of a fetish.''

The Time Lady shuddered, taking his place on the floor once he stood up. ''Don't say things like that; it's creepy!'' she scolded him.

''But it was that woman,'' Martha told them, ''Miss Finnegan. It was working for her. Just like a servant.''

The Doctor pulled his sonic out of the machinery, only to see the tip charred and burnt out beyond recognition. ''My sonic screwdriver,'' he pouted.

''She was one of the patients, but-''

''No, no, my sonic screwdriver!''

''She had this straw like some sort of vampire!''

''I love my sonic screwdriver!''

Alexandra stood up and laid a hand on his shoulder in consolation. ''It's okay, I'll get you a new one! I promise! Or I'll have the TARDIS get you one… Can't TARDISes do that?'' she asked in thought. ''Make sonic screwdrivers?''

''Doctor!'' Martha called to get their attention.

The Time Lord tossed the useless screwdriver over his shoulder with a wide grin, turning towards her. ''Sorry. You called me Doctor!''

''Anyway! Miss Finnegan is the alien. She was drinking Mr. Stoker's blood!''

Alexandra frowned again, this time in thought. ''Funny time for an alien to take a snack, don't you think? You'd think she'd be hiding for her-'' But then her mouth dropped open in realization and she nudged the Doctor in the chest. ''Unless that was the reason she took a snack for!''

''No…'' the Doctor mumbled, but then it dawned on him, as well. ''Yes, that's it- wait a minute. Yes!'' He grabbed Alexandra's arms, looking her straight in the eyes. ''Shape-changer; internal shape-changer. She wasn't drinking blood, she was assimilating it!'' Without warning, he kissed her forehead. ''You're brilliant, Alexandra!''

''You've told me before!'' she smiled, turning to explain to Martha. ''If Miss Finnegan can assimilate Mr. Stoker's blood and mimic its morphology, she can register as human in the scans!''

''We've got to find her and show the Judoon,'' the Doctor said, grabbing her hand again and running out. ''Come on!''

Martha had no other choice but to follow the two aliens.


	3. Wrestle Against Time

**A/N: Happy New Year! I wish you the best of luck for 2015 and I hope that all of you achieve whatever you set your mind to! And good luck to those of you who start school tomorrow (I go back on Thursday)!**

**Of course, a special thanks goes to those who followed and added the story to their favourites! I haven't sat still long enough to send messages to each of you personally, but I hope I will be able to do so this week.**

**So, enjoy the chapter! **

The Doctor, Alexandra and Martha sat ducked behind a water cooler on their way to Mr. Stoker's office, watching as a second Slab walked out of a room, possibly in search of its mistress.

''That's the thing about Slabs'', the Doctor whispered, studying it. ''They always travel in pairs.''

''What about you?'' Martha asked him, sitting on the floor between Alexandra and the Doctor. She had noticed how surprised the Doctor had looked when Alexandra first came in the room, so even though they seemed to know each other well, they weren't together on this trip. Did that mean that they were simply acquaintances, or did they also travel together, with days off?

''What about us what?'' he asked back, half paying attention.

''Do you travel together?''

He shot a look momentarily at Alexandra, who had turned her head around sharply to look at Martha. ''No, we don't.''

''Then what? Are you relatives, friends-?''

The Doctor stared at Martha in disbelief. ''Uh. Humans. We're stuck on the moon, running out of air with Judoon and a bloodsucking criminal, and you're asking personal questions. Come on.'' He stood up to peek around the corner, the girls following after him.

''I like that,'' Martha joked, pulling Alexandra up. '''Humans'. Still not convinced you're aliens.''

''Seriously?'' Alexandra asked. ''He just absorbed radiation that would have killed a human on the spot and you still can't believe it?!''

Just then the Doctor stepped around the corner… right in front of a Judoon who shone the blue light on his face, the scanner beeping irregularly. ''Non-human,'' he declared.

''Oh my God, you really are!'' Martha breathed.

''And again!'' the Doctor sighed and pulled both of them by the hand, running down the corridor as the Judoon pulled guns at them and ducking once they fired. As the thugs chased after them, they again escaped to floor 7, guided by the Doctor. He locked the door behind them.

In the main corridor, the patients were dropping unconscious on the floor from the lack of oxygen. ''They've done this floor. Come on," the Doctor led them through it without looking at them. ''The Judoon are logical and just a little bit thick. They won't go back to check a floor they've checked already. If we're lucky.''

Alexandra noticed the woman from before, Swales, feeding oxygen to a woman on a chair and went to kneel beside her, accompanied by Martha. ''How much oxygen is there?'' she asked.

''Not enough for all these people,'' she replied quietly so as not to alarm the people around them. ''We're going to run out.''

The Doctor observed the two of them, their eagerness to help the patients, their compassion. Suddenly he felt a tiny bit guilty for not asking how they were doing himself. But that's just how he was when he was focused; he completely blocked out everything around him. That's why he had companions, people to travel with; to keep him in check. ''How are you feeling? Are you all right?'' he asked Martha.

''I'm running on adrenaline," she smiled at him.

''Welcome to my world. And you,'' he turned to Alexandra, ''holding up all right?''

''Different respiratory system, right?'' she asked back. ''I'll be fine for now.''

''What about the Judoon?'' Martha asked the aliens.

The Doctor looked up and down the corridor, as if the mention of their name would summon them there. ''Nah, great big lung reserves, it won't slow them down. Where's Mr. Stoker's office?''

Martha stood up and walked towards a side corridor. ''It's this way,'' she pointed.

The Time Lords followed her slowly inside the office, through the broken down door. There was no sign of Miss Finnegan, but the lifeless body of Mr. Stoker lay on the floor as pale as a sheet, a round hole at the side of his neck and his dead blue eyes staring up at the ceiling. They rushed towards him the moment they saw it.

''She's gone!'' Martha said. ''She was here!''

''Look at this,'' Alexandra mumbled after a close examination of the body, leaning above it. ''She drained him dry! Not even a drop of blood left.''

''You were right,'' the Doctor observed, looking up at her, ''she's a plasmavore.''

''What was she doing on Earth?'' Martha asked, puzzled.

''Hiding,'' he explained, ''on the run. Like Ronald Biggs in Rio de Janeiro.''

''But what's she doing now?'' Alexandra wondered. ''She's still not safe; the Judoon could execute us all!''

''Come on,'' he helped her up and they went for the door.

''Wait a minute,'' Martha called and they stopped. They watched as she knelt above Mr. Stoker's body and closed his eyes.

_'You should consider taking her on,'_ Alexandra thought to the Doctor. '_She seems like a good person to trust._'

The Doctor was startled at first at the sudden income of thoughts. He hadn't yet grown used to the fact that there was another Time Lord in the universe, even though the hum of her presence was there. But when they weren't at a particularly close range, this hum would almost cease in his mind, become so quiet that he really had to concentrate to feel that she was there, that it wasn't just a phantom sensation left by his own heartache and desperation to believe that he wasn't the only one left. Though, the tingle he had just felt at the sudden mental connection she had made to talk to him was most welcome.

_'I'm not looking for company, Valyria; I'm fine on my own,'_ he replied to her, carefully keeping her away from any other part of his mind for now.

_'But she would be an amazing space explorer; not to mention a caring friend.'_

_'Then why don't you come along? Why do I need to pick someone else?'_

_'Because I asked nicely?'_ she tried, but their mental conversation was cut short when Martha came back to them and the three of them headed out of the office.

''Think, think, think,'' the Doctor mumbled to himself, rubbing the back of his head as they walked away. ''If I was a wanted plasmavore surrounded by police, what would I do?'' Once he lifted his head, he saw a red sign reading ''MRI'' pointing to the left, and that was when he realized. ''Ah. She's as clever as me,'' he said in amazement, but then shrugged. ''Almost.''

Alexandra was looking at the sign incredulously. ''Please tell me we're thinking completely different things.''

Suddenly, a door was thrown open with a loud bang and people screamed, making the trio turn their heads around to see the Judoon marching down the corridor. ''Find the non-human! Execute!'' the chief ordered.

The Doctor turned to Martha. ''Martha, stay here. We need time. You've got to hold them up.''

''How do I do that?!'' she asked.

He raised his hands up as if to hold her face. ''Just, forgive me for this. It could save a thousand lives, it means nothing. Honestly, nothing.'' He stared into her eyes, waiting for her to fully understand, and when she gave him a small nod, he grabbed her face and kissed her on the lips, to Alexandra's utter shock. After a short moment he broke away, leaving Martha quite a bit dazed from her own shock, and grabbed Alexandra's hand to pull her after him as he ran down the corridor to the MRI room.

''That was quite bold of you,'' she commented off-handily.

''Well, how do you suggest I had done a genetic transfer on such a short notice?'' he countered, looking around him at the empty corridors that stretched before them.

''It's not that! It's just that Martha might interpret it differently,'' she explained.

''But I told her it meant nothing!''

''Humans, Doctor,'' Alexandra reminded him, tugging at his hand to turn him towards the right way to the MRI room. ''They just have to disregard all obvious signs and dig for what they think is obvious; believe me, I've been one for twelve years, I should know.''

''Can we discuss this afterwards?'' He paused in the middle of the corridor. ''Bloodsucking criminal about to fry the brain stems of every living creature within at least 250,000 miles that we have to stop? Remember?''

Alexandra stared at him. ''Well, if you insist.''

He nodded and took her hand again with a smirk. ''Right, here we go. Allons-y!''

As he pulled her forwards again, she registered her hand had grown warmer in his, but not because he had been holding it, oh no. She would recognize that warmth in her hands anywhere. Immediately, she pulled it away. ''Wait!'' she stopped dead in her tracks.

The Doctor paused, looking at her curiously. ''What's wrong?''

Her... _ability_ was building up again; her adrenaline had started to kick in at last... or her nerves at the prospect of meeting a plasmavore with no defences were reaching their peak. Honestly, she couldn't tell at times. She should have wondered why her hands hadn't started glowing yet; usually it took them less than that. But now, she could feel it coming. The warmth in her hands, accompanied by a growing fatigue that always came when her gift decided to act up against her will. But she would tell him none of that, for he knew nothing of what she could really do.

''Maybe we should not go in together,'' she suggested instead, sticking her hands under her armpits and thanking the stars she was wearing a long sleeved jacket instead of her usual cloak. ''The element of surprise is always a good option.''

''Where did this come from?'' he asked, an eyebrow raised.

''What, don't you trust my judgement?''

''I didn't mean-''

''Good,'' she cut him off with a smile, nodding down the corridor that lead to the MRI room. ''Go on, I've got your back. Just shout if you get in trouble -I won't let her drink too much.''

At that, he actually frowned. ''How did you-?''

''Well, it's you we're talking about; it would either be something brilliant, something dangerous, or both, now go on!''

He looked at her for a good long moment before reluctantly walking towards the end of the corridor where bright flashes of light were coming from. Last time she had acted like this, she had led UNIT to her location to arrest her, so he, of course, didn't like where this was going. He could only guess what she had in mind, though he was pretty sure what came to his mind was a far cry from what was actually happening. You could never be sure with another Time Lord, especially if said Time Lord was Alexandra.

Once Alexandra heard a door open and close, she let herself stagger and fall on the wall behind her, sliding down it with a huff. She raised her hands to examine them: not surprisingly, they were emitting a soft yellow glow, like a source of light was trapped right underneath her skin. From previous experience, she knew that the light extended to just below her elbow, and that if she didn't stop it soon, it would have terrible repercussions for her...

~\8/~

The Doctor stepped cautiously inside the room, blinded by the light that occasionally flashed from the MRI. Electric bolts ran the length of the machine, and a quick inspection of the room revealed Miss Finnegan, a frail looking woman in her 70s, working the controls, a black X drawn at the back of her right hand.

He walked inside the room slowly, his face taking on a frantic expression as he instantly regretted what he was about to do. Oh, he just hoped that it would be Alexandra to find him... ''Have you seen- there are these things,'' he started, making the plasmavore turn around to look at him as he pointed towards the door, ''these great big space rhino things; I mean rhinos from space! And we're on the moon! Great big space rhinos with guns on the moon! And I only came in for my bunions, look!'' He grabbed his right foot to show her, rubbing the sole. ''They're all right now, perfectly good treatment, the nurses were lovely; I said to my wife, I'd recommend this place to anyone, but then we end up on the moon! And did I mention the rhinos?''

By the time he had finished his rant, she had come out of the control booth to study him closely. ''Hold him!'' she ordered, and suddenly the remaining Slab that had been hiding behind the door came forward and grabbed the Doctor's arms from behind, holding him in place...

~\8/~

Meanwhile, Alexandra was having a hard time distinguishing the actual time she was in from all the notions from different time zones she was getting, both past and future. She was pretty sure she currently was in 2008, but now, with all the raw energy she had coursing through her, she was losing all sense of time zone identification.

It started slowly; she would start getting feelings from other times and places and her Time Lord senses would go wild trying to tell her which notion was real and which wasn't. It was quite remarkable, how strong that sense was to make her even doubt her knowledge of where she was right then and there. Then, as the energy built up inside her, she would feel a pull towards a certain time zone and her senses would accept it as the current one, but that was when she would lose the battle. If she fell in the trap of letting herself get distracted, her grip of where she was right then would slip and she would be a goner. Her displacements hurt more often than not, even after so many years of having them.

And the saddest part was that she still didn't have a clue of how or why she ended up where she did. That's the reason she wore a vortex manipulator at all times; it wasn't just because it helped her travel through time easily and almost always with no detection (for, some species had developed machines that could detect time discharges after time travel had become commonplace), but because she could go back to the time zone she was in if she had displaced herself by accident. Not that there was any other way she could displace herself at the moment.

She took a few deep breaths, closing her eyes and bringing her knees to her chest to concentrate. What is real? What feels more real right now? She tried to anchor her Time Lord sense of time, search among the notions and feel for which time zone felt more solid than the rest. It was a hard task that required all her mental strength to perform; another one of the reasons she had trained up her mind in the past centuries. Steadily, she made her way through all the notions that bombarded her, searching for one that would be time-identical with whatever she was touching (surprisingly, she had discovered that touching her body on surfaces made her hold on to her time zone better). It took almost a minute for her to find the right one: Earth, 2008, somewhen in spring.

She raised her hand to dial the time and place in her vortex manipulator as quickly as she could. Even if she did manage to find the right time zone, she wasn't out of displacement danger yet; she sometimes wasn't quick enough to reverse the process and she would travel through time anyway, and the times when she had suffered from short memory loss weren't a few. One particular time she had to travel to a different place because she couldn't remember where and when she had come from. But as she dialled, her eyes focused on her fingers and widened.

Wisps of golden energy had started to dance on the surface of her skin.

''No, no, no, no, no...'' she mumbled frantically, turning her body around so that her side was touching the wall. She closed her eyes tightly and leaned against it more, trying to feel her surroundings as she, little by little, lost her grip of that time and place...


	4. Responsibility

''That-that big machine... thing, is it supposed to be making that noise?'' the Doctor asked as Miss Finnegan checked over the MRI.

She waved a dismissive hand at him. ''You wouldn't understand.''

''But isn't that a-a magnetic resonance imaging... thing? Like a-a ginormous sort of a magnet? I did Magnetics GCSE. Well, I failed, but all the same.''

''A magnet with its settings now increased to 50,000 Tesla,'' she said with a smile in her voice.

The Doctor frowned. ''Ooh. That's a bit strong, isn't it?''

''It'll send out a magnetic pulse that will fry the brain-stems of every living thing...'' She turned to look at him, a gleeful grin on her face. ''...within 250,000 miles! Except me, safe in this room.

That complicated things quite a bit. ''But... hold on, hold on,'' he said as she went to the control booth again, ''I did Geography GCSE, I passed that one; doesn't that distance include the Earth?''

''Only the side facing the moon,'' she said, looking up from her work. ''The other half will survive. Call it my little gift.'' Then, she focused on the control panel in front of her once more.

He shook his head, feigning confusion. ''I'm sorry, you'll have to excuse me, I'm a little out of my depth. I've spent the past fifteen years working as a postman, hence the bunions - why would you do that?''

''With everyone dead, the Judoon ships will be mine, to make my escape.''

''Now, that's weird. You're talking like you're some sort of an alien,'' he laughed.

Miss Finnegan turned around, a very serious look on her face. ''Right-o.''

His mouth shaped in a perfect O. ''No!''

''Oh, yes,'' she nodded.

''You're joshing me.''

''I am not.''

''I'm talking to an alien? In a hospital? What, has this place got an ET department?''

''It's the perfect hiding place,'' she started explaining, coming around from the booth. ''Blood banks downstairs for a midnight feast, and all this equipment I'm ready to arm myself with should the police come looking,'' she looked pointedly at him.

''So, those rhinos, they're looking for you?'' he asked in the perfect imitation of shock.

''Yes. But I'm hidden.'' She held up her hand to show him the X drawn at the back of it.

''Oh. Right!'' He nodded along, bracing himself for what he was about to go through next. ''Maybe that's why they're increasing their scans.''

At that, Florence span around in alarm. ''They're doing what?''

''Big chief rhino boy, he said 'No sign of a non-human, we must increase our scans up to setting two'?''

She nodded slowly at the statement. ''Then I must assimilate again.''

''What does that mean?''

''I must appear to be human.'' She walked behind the booth and bent down to pick something up, coming around with her handbag.

If he was being completely honest, he wasn't ready to have his blood be drunk by a plasmavore. Who would be? But then he thought of all the people who would suffocate if he didn't do something soon, and that Alexandra had his back at that very moment, and what he had to do seemed a little less... horrible. ''Well, you're welcome to come home and meet the wife,'' he smiled cheerfully, keeping up the pretence, ''she'd be honoured! We can have cake!''

''Why should I have cake?'' she asked, a simple straw in her hand. ''I've got my little straw!''

Well, that was driving the joke out of the window. ''That's nice. Milkshake? I love banana.''

Miss Finnegan hummed in thought. ''You're quite the funny man. And yet, I think, laughing on purpose at the darkness. I think it's time you found some peace. Steady him!''

The Slab forced him down on his knees, exposing the right side of his neck, and he groaned in pain. Miss Finnegan advanced towards him with a smile on her face, like a proper Angel of Death, wiping at his skin. ''What are you doing?'' he asked.

''I'm afraid this is going to hurt. But if it's any consolation, the dead don't tend to remember.'' And with that, she stuck one end of the straw on his neck, placing her lips on the other end, ready to drink...

~\8/~

At the corridor right before the MRI section, the Judoon had just finished a full body scan on Martha. The chief drew an X on the back of her hand. ''Confirmed: human. Traces of facial contact with non-human. Continue the search!'' he barked the last bit at his team before handing Martha a slip of paper. ''You will need this.''

Martha studied the small leaflet. ''What's that for?'' she asked in confusion.

''Compensation,'' the chief replied and stomped off with the others. She didn't stay there for long; pocketing the leaflet, she followed suit behind them, wanting to know what the Time Lords had done...

~\8/~

Miss Finnegan was sucking the Doctor's blood through her straw greedily, her eyes wide. As he was slowly slipping from consciousness, the effects of blood loss were slowly getting to him; his thoughts were blurry, incomprehensive, but his eyes, even though half-open by now, remained focused on the door, wearily wondering where his partner in crime was now...

Before long, a black shape with pink arms almost crashed through the door, and Alexandra stood upright at the entrance, jacket-less, taking in the sight before her: the Slab holding the Doctor fast in a kneeling position, the plasmavore with the straw on his neck, looking up at her in shock.

The Time Lady stepped inside the room, panting like she had been running, sweat running down her brow. She stared at Florence. ''So, you're the one with the fetish, then,'' she said.

The plasmavore gasped. ''Kill her!'' she ordered the Slab.

The slave dumped the Doctor's near lifeless body unceremoniously on the floor, from where he tried to hold on to consciousness long enough to watch as it advanced towards Alexandra. The woman shut her eyes and concentrated, venting the remainder her mental strength at one single function: raising up her arms, she released all the built-up energy and the Slab went flying across the room, landing right in front of the MRI. Florence didn't see what happened properly, for it had blocked her view of the Time Lady when it went for her, so she thought the woman simply pushed it away.

But that was all she could do. Her mental strength had been utterly spent in five short minutes and her feet gave out from underneath her as soon as the Slab had landed, falling on the floor next to the Doctor. Alexandra looked up at him, studying him to see if he was all right. His skin was pale and looked like even keeping his eyes open drew copious amounts of energy out of him. They flattered shut a moment later, and hers followed, both of them slipping from consciousness...

The door was suddenly kicked almost clear off its hinges and the Judoon marched in, looking around. Miss Finnegan immediately put the straw in her handbag, dubbing at her blood red lips with a finger. ''Now see what you've done!'' she reprimanded them, pointing at the pair on the floor. ''These poor dears just died of fright!''

''Scan him!'' the chief Judoon ordered. One from his team took a scanner and flashed the light on the Doctor's face, the one that mattered to them, and it gave a flat noise. ''Confirmation: deceased.''

Martha came in the room just in time to hear the last sentence. ''No, he can't be,'' she protested, trying to walk through the rhinos. ''Let me through, let me see him!''

The chief put a hand on her shoulder to keep her from going any closer. ''Stop. Case closed.''

''But it was her,'' Martha tried again, making Miss Finnegan look up. ''She killed him. She did it. She murdered him!''

''Judoon have no authority over human crime.''

''But she's _not_ human.''

''Oh, but I am,'' the plasmavore piped in, holding up her hand, ''I've been catalogued!''

''But she's not! She assimil-'' But then realisation dawned on Martha and she could see right through the Time Lords' plan. ''Wait a minute. You drank his blood. _The Doctor's_ blood!'' She grabbed the scanner from a Judoon and flashed the woman with the light.

''Oh, I don't mind,'' she said, too confident for her own good. ''Scan all you like.''

When the scanner started beeping irregularly, the chief Judoon almost growled. ''Non-human.''

A look of panic crossed her features. ''What?''

''Confirm analysis!'' The rest of the Judoon held up their scanners.

''Oh, but it's a mistake, surely,'' she tried to wave them off when all scanners beeped irregularly. ''I'm human. I'm as human as they come.''

''He gave his life so that they'd find you,'' Martha mumbled, her eyes flickering between the Doctor's near lifeless body and Alexandra's unconscious one. Why had she dropped like a stone?

''Confirmed: Plasmavore. I charge you with the crime of murdering the child princess of Patrival Regency Nine.''

''Well, she deserved it!'' she plasmavore spat, dropping all pretence. ''Those pink cheeks and those blonde curls and that _simpering voice_. She was begging for the bite of a plasmavore.''

''Then you confess?''

''Confess? I'm proud of it! Slab, stop them!'' she shouted, ducking behind the control booth. The Slab, which had come back to its feet, charged towards the Judoon, but one of them raised its gun and fired a red blast, disintegrating it.

''Verdict: guilty,'' the chief said. ''Sentence: execution.'' All Judoon raised their guns and took aim.

But the plasmavore was quick: she joined two wires together and the MRI went into overload. She turned to face them through the glass. ''Enjoy your victory, Judoon, because you're going to burn with me. Burn in HELL!''

The Judoon fired at the glass and it melted like wax, the plasmavore screaming from the concentrated blasts of their guns on her. Before long, she was just a pile of ashes, her scream the only reminder that she had ever been there.

''Case closed,'' the chef Judoon declared.

Martha went to kneel between the Time Lords and took Alexandra's wrist. Her heart was beating abnormally fast for someone who was unconscious. ''What did she mean, 'burn with me'? The scanner shouldn't be doing that. She's _done_ something.''

The chief walked over and scanned the MRI. ''Scans detect lethal acceleration of mono-magnetic pulse.''

''Well, do something! Stop it!''

''Our jurisdiction has ended. Judoon will evacuate.''

''You can't just leave it!'' the human protested. ''What's it going to do?''

He pulled out a red comm. device. ''All units withdraw,'' he called and his command resonated throughout the hospital. His team and he evacuated the room immediately and Martha stood up to follow them, watching their retreating backs.

''You can't go!'' she shouted. ''That thing's going to explode and it's all _your fault_!'' But they paid no heed to her shouts; they turned around the corner and disappeared, leaving her to stand in the middle of the corridor, alone.

But she wouldn't let that pass. Without second thought she ran back inside and knelt by the Doctor's side, ignoring her own dizziness as she started applying CPR. She breathed into his mouth once and then started pushing down at the centre of his chest. ''One, two, three, four, five,'' she counted, moving to give him mouth-to-mouth again before pumping his chest once more, ''One, two, three, four, five...''

''Hearts...''

The human would have almost missed the groan that came out of Alexandra's lips and the word disguised within. ''What?'' she asked in confusion.

The Time Lady blinked a few times and raised her hands weakly, making to cross her heart; but no, each hand crossed either side of her chest instead of just the left. ''Two hearts...'' she mumbled, a little stronger than before but still not making a move to sit up.

And that's when Martha remembered: her mind went back to that morning when she had listened to his heart, hearing the second heartbeat next to the first one...

Her thoughts were getting foggier as oxygen starvation kicked in, but he was her patient and she wasn't going to leave him like this. She placed her hands over the right side of his chest. ''One, two, three, four, five,'' she pumped, then moved to the left side, ''One, two, three, four, five!'' The air around her was thin, but she managed to take in a lungful and breathe it into the Doctor. As soon as she separated from him, he gasped awake and coughed loudly, Martha collapsing on the floor next to him in relief and exhaustion.

His eyes travelled to Alexandra, who rolled on her side and gave him a weak nod to reassure him that she was alright, smiling when she saw that he was alright (or just about), as well. Then he looked at the medical student, who wasn't even moving. ''The scanner...'' she rasped out, ''she did something...'' As she breathed out those last words, her eyes fluttered shut.

The Doctor looked up at the MRI, through which bolts of electricity were running, no doubt having encircled the whole hospital by now. Coughing hard, he let Alexandra push herself up to Martha and cradle her head in her lap as he staggered in the control booth to turn off the machine. It was hard to even sit upright due to all the blood loss, but he managed to fall on the desk in front of the computer by some miracle. He reached into his inside pocket, only to grab a handful of its fabric: he had forgotten that he had discarded the sonic when it was burned earlier, and he grumbled at the turn of events.

''Unplug it, for God's sake!'' Alexandra shouted over the roar of electricity, seeing his distress. She was going over Martha's vitals; they, as Time Lords, could go on longer without oxygen, but if the Judoon didn't reverse the process immediately, the humans would all suffocate. The girl appeared to be fine for now, but what would happen if oxygen didn't return in the following five minutes? There was only so much the human brain could withstand!

The bolts suddenly stopped and she looked up from Martha's face to see the Doctor making an effort to stand up among coughs. She took hold of one of Martha's arms and stood up, trying to make the unconscious woman sit more upright. ''Can you help me with her?'' she asked him.

He pushed off the controls and came around to them, sitting a bit straighter, and took the human's other arm, helping Alexandra haul her up. Like that they got out of the room and into the corridor, testing out how to walk with Martha between them. As they neared the spot where the Doctor had left Alexandra, his eyes fell on a circular section of wall close to the floor that was missing its top coat of paint and some of the plaster underneath. Even though that seemed curious at the moment, he had no time to sit and think about it; instead he continued walking along with the two women.

They walked down the corridors, back to the room the Doctor had been in, each of Martha's arms around the Time Lords' necks for support as they half-dragged, half-carried her along. It wasn't an easy task, seeing as one of them had sustained blood loss and the other had barely managed to tame the forces of the universe that ran through her, but they managed to reach the room.

They looked outside at the Judoon ships leaving the surface of the moon. ''Come on, come on, come on,'' the Doctor mumbled, ''come on, please... Come on, Judoon, reverse it!''

Before long, it had started pouring heavily outside the hospital. The Time Lords grinned. ''It's raining, Martha,'' Alexandra said, even though she knew the medical student couldn't hear her, ''it's raining on the moon!''

A blinding flash of light engulfed them...

~\8/~

People were running about, hugging their relatives as medical teams arrived at the fully returned Royal Hope Hospital to help those who had been inside. More than half of them were crying, the rest being buried in the chests of their loved ones that had rushed to find out what had happened.

In the commotion, Alexandra and the Doctor slipped away from the building, the Time Lady insisting he lean on her while they made their way to the blue box. On the way, she stopped by one of the bushes outside the perimeter of the hospital, coincidentally close to the parked TARDIS and dug her hands inside, letting) out a cheery whoop when her fingers curled around what she had been looking for.

The Doctor looked as she pulled out a black shiny piece of fabric, realising it was a cloak. ''Oh, how I've missed you!'' she mused, hugging the cloak to her chest.

''You hid it in a bush,'' he frowned.

The Time Lady pulled it on and tied it around her neck. ''Well, they're not commonplace in 2008, are they?''

He laughed and took her hand, walking towards the blue box. Before they stepped inside, they caught sight of Martha standing some feet away, a woman that must have been her sister talking to her. Both of them waved at her with smiles on their faces and the human smiled back at them.

Alexandra had really liked the woman, more than she would admit. Not only did she reveal the alien, but she saved the Doctor when the Time Lady was unable too. While she was lying there, her head filled with heavy stones and sound being augmented to painful screeches once it reached her ears, the Doctor was dying right next to her. And she couldn't raise herself up to help him; hell, it had even been hard to breathe. And that woman, Martha Jones, had saved him, had brought him back to life when he was dancing at the edge of it, threatening to jump off. Even if it would take a while for her to admit it, she was grateful for her help.

But that situation got her thinking. What if one day, for real, something happened to the Doctor while he was waiting for her to say yes? What if, heaven forbid, he died and she didn't even know where he was to go and find him? And even if she was there with him, could she stand the burden of him dying while she was there to help but was unable to? How would she feel then? That past day she had fought with all her might against the force that threatened to take control of her life just to get to the Doctor's side in time to save him, and even that attempt had nearly gone downhill. How would she fare if, the next time she went to save him, she was too late?

The pair entered the TARDIS, the Doctor closing the door behind him. ''Well then, that was fun! Where should we go next?''

Alexandra laughed, taking him by the arm. ''Oh, you're going nowhere, mister, until you have recovered.'' She guided him to the pilot's chair and made him sit down.

At her response he actually pouted. ''Recovered from what?''

''Well, blood loss, for starters,'' she said, working on the console.

''I'm perfectly fine, thank you! And with you here watching over me, I'll be right as rain!''

''Who said it'd be staying?'' she asked, sending the TARDIS into flight, and the Doctor's expression fell slightly.

His last comment had been a shot in the dark, he knew that, but her answer yet again wasn't the one he was expecting. ''Well, I thought, after the adventure we just had-''

''I'll go back to base,'' she cut him off. ''I've got some things to take care off first.''

''Then you'll come with me?'' he asked, his voice taking on a hopeful tone at the end...

...which didn't go amiss from her, seeing that she was smiling when she turned around from inputting a command to face him. ''Once you see me as a person and not as a responsibility, then yes, I'll consider coming along.''

His gaze dropped to the floor for a moment before he looked up at her again. ''I don't see you as a responsibility,'' he said, even though it sounded very weak even to his own ears.

''You see me as your best friend's daughter,'' she insisted. ''Which is exactly the same as seeing me as your responsibility.''

''How so?'' he just had to ask.

Alexandra threw her hands in the air in exasperation. ''Because you feel like you owe her to take care of me now that she's gone! You see me as part of her, not as a completely different person! I don't need a father, Doctor; I've lived long enough without one to have grown used to the absence of a father figure. What I need is a friend and that's what you need, as well, but I can't be that for you with the tag 'Romana's daughter' over my head.''

For a moment, he remained silent, considering what she had said and taking special notice of the fact that she had used his title instead of his name, and then he nodded slowly. ''You want me as your friend,'' he agreed, even though his mind screamed that he couldn't see her as such, not completely yet, anyway.

''Yes, a mate,'' she nodded with him.

''A friend or a mate?'' he asked, eyebrows raised playfully.

Alexandra chuckled and pulled down a lever in retaliation, landing the TARDIS. She pushed off the console. ''So, this is me.''

The Doctor jumped up from his seat, not even realising how smoothly they had been flying until she landed. ''What, won't you tell me what you've been up to?''

She shook her head. ''Not right now, sorry.'' Then, she spread her hands expectantly, earning a confused glance from the Doctor. She rolled her eyes. ''I do hugs, you know.''

That, on the other hand, earned her a smile from him as he wrapped his arms around her waist, her doing the same. After a few rather long moments in each other's embrace, they broke away, looking around awkwardly.

''So...'' the Doctor trailed, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

''You should say thank you to Martha,'' Alexandra said out of the blue. ''You didn't with all that going on.''

He nodded in agreement; anything to escape the uncomfortable silence they had fallen into. ''Yes, I should. I really should-''

''Take her on a thank you trip,'' she suggested.

He half-groaned. ''Oh, don't start!''

''What? Is taking her on for one single trip through time too much? She saved your life!''

''Yeah, but you could've done that!''

''But I couldn't.'' The deeper meaning of her words hit him like a train on a track and he had to physically pause. Even though the fact that she had been late to come inside and help him still bothered him, he had to agree that she wouldn't be there at all should similar situations arise. And really, what would be the harm in taking Martha for a ''thank you'' trip?

''Fine,'' he agreed at last, pointing at her face. ''But only for one trip!''

She raised her hands in defence. ''I'm not gonna tell you how long you're going to keep her; I'm not the boss of you.'' Before he could register what was happening, she stood on her tiptoes and placed a small peck on his cheek, sauntering to the doors as soon as she broke away. ''Till the next time, yeah?''

He shook himself out of his shock long enough to reply. ''Looking forward to it!'' he smiled at her.

Her hand rested on the door knob for a short moment before she turned around to look at him, an almost wishful look on her face. ''Goodbye, Theta.''

The Doctor nodded in recognition. ''Goodbye, Valyria.''

With a final nod and a smile of her own, Alexandra opened the door and stepped outside into an overcast day in Cardiff, only the afternoon of the hospital attack. As soon as the doors where closed, the time machine started dematerializing behind her, the sound making her hearts break.

Every time she entered the TARDIS, it became harder and harder to leave. Would she be able to tear herself away next time?

A few feet away, out of her line of sight, a woman stopped over a big circular piece of what appeared to be the surface part of a wall lying on the ground, a black leather jacket on top of it. Examining the artefacts, her hand flew to take the jacket and she ran away, hoping no one saw her.


End file.
